The things you sometimes see
A post on a fashionable car

Jazzing up your car. I wouldn’t be a fair judge on this subject because it is not my thing. But I just wanted to share this stolen picture with you, quickly taken on a rainy Sunday! That immediately made my day, a much brighter one….
I guess I would have liked to see that wonderful minivan in the dark--to be able to enjoy the probable shiny effect of the rear lights installed on the rear bumper.
I simply think that I have found the minivan brother of KITT (do you remember, K2000 a.k.a. Knight Rider and its proud driver, Michael Knight?).

- Nico

PS: check out the wings on the roof!

Autonomy Walking Humanoid
KHR-2HV

What the heck is that barbaric post title?
As we were walking around our neighborhood of Asakusa, our attention got attracted by what looked like a robot competition.
At first, I thought, yeah! this will be like the mean robot competition I was watching on TV in England (sorry but I can’t remember the name). But then we walked closer to the action and the robots were not fighting…Apparently just competing against each other in some kind of speed race.

A family event…
I don’t want to advertise here for the company that was sponsoring the event. Apparently KHR-2HV is the robot’s name and he is only 1 week old! He is the younger brother of KHR-1.
Some of the people got very creative when dressing the robot for the event. We met KHR-2HV the sumo, the maid and more simply, KHR-2HV with a bear head!
That was pretty funny and cool.
Some guys were “piloting” the robot, just showing their skills at piloting it or what the robot could achieve in terms of moves. Even if I am no expert in these things, I still think it was pretty impressive. The robot was able to quickly accomplish some rather complicated moves (walking, sitting down, standing up, flipping around etc and all that very smoothly).

A quick word on the competition
We watched one round of the competition.
For each round, 2 robots were competing against each other. We watched ‘mitten-hands’ competing against ‘bear-head’.
First the guys and their robots were briefly introduced. Following the introduction, the owners would lift their robots so that the audience could see them better.
Basically, a start and a goal line to which the robot had to walk as quick as possible. The first robot to cross the goal line would win and the time would be recorded.

Basically, mitten-hands quickly took the advantage over bear-head and walked diagonally to block the way to bear-head. As soon as mitten-hands crossed the goal line, it stopped right there and it took forever for bear-head to maneuver around and reach the goal line….pretty good strategy!

Breathtaking…..!

- Nico

Kyoto, an excursion in the floating world

Last weekend was a 3 day weekend (yes, it also sometimes happens in Japan!) so Karin and I decided to get away from Tokyo and go to Kyoto.
In one word, we loved it. Kyoto is such a nice city to stroll around, has such a quiet feel (in comparison with Tokyo) and offers so many fabulous things to see.

The floating world
Have you ever heard of that?
Ladies wearing kimonos, businessmen wearing suits, hostesses going from one bar to another, all this is part of this world of illusion, known as the floating world. And of course geishas….!
In Kyoto, the neighborhood of Gion is the location where the scenes of that world happen. Obviously Gion is best visited at night when these folks are out and conducting their activities.
Walking around the neighborhood and seeing Geishas is not uncommon. They always look very busy, probably running from one appointment to another.

But what’s going on?
This is the thing, as you walk around, nothing seems to be happening, a taxi parked here and there but nothing seems to be moving. And yet you know (because Lonely Planet said so) that you are in the place!!
It is a very intriguing thing: your imagination gets trapped in what you think might be happening behind the walls of these high end restaurants and clubs…
Plenty of little alleys with a few lanterns here and there, sliding doors getting open and closed.
The sad part is that for foreigners, it is very difficult to penetrate into that world. You pretty much need to be introduced into this world by other member and it is a very luxurious world!

Other alternatives
So, if you really are in the mood for that kind of activity, but you can’t make it to these places, there are still plenty of options left on the other side of the street with the more conventional but still pricey hostess bars.
Other choices are some of the many other restaurants available, some of them looking like they are coming straight out of the Japanese animation movies we saw when we were kids (with people sitting on tatami mats, sliding doors, etc, etc)…

Recipe for a successful evening
To make sure your evening will be successful you can start your Gion night by a little excursion at the nearby shrine (open 24/7) and say a quick prayer to put all the chances of a successful night on your side. In the dark, the shrine is illuminated and with its colorful decorations, it turns out super nice.
When we were there, people were rehearsing for a ceremony (involving some dragon dance). The lanterns were all lit inside the shrine’s yard and it gave some kind of a magic feel, very relaxing (and no mosquitoes!).

- Nico